Town re-bidding contract for air service

The town will have to re-advertise its contract for commuter airline service, since no qualified bidders have come forward to provide up to 2,400 one-way flights per year for municipal employees.

One proposal was submitted to the town by the new Nantucket Shuttle, but the bid was rejected because of a clause in the bid specifications that requires any company wishing to take on the contract to have been an established business operating flights between Nantucket and Hyannis for at least five years.

Nantucket Shuttle has been in operation since March of last year.

The clause is intended to safeguard against the town signing a contract with an upstart company which may go out of business before the end of the contract, said projects administrator Diane O’Neill.

Nor is the clause limited to airline contracts. O’Neill pointed to a copy of the invitation to bid for the Old South Road bike path construction which required companies to have “been in the business of excavation and/or asphalt paving for a minimum of seven years.”

The airline contract had been held for the past six years by Island Airlines, who along with Cape Air/Nantucket Airlines did not submit bids, but who, according O’Neill, plan to submit bids when the next invitation is officially released.

The flights are for employees of the town who need to travel off-island for training or other town business-related purposes.

The 2,400 one-way or 1,200 round-trips could be utilized by 25 different town departments, including the Board of Selectmen, fire and police departments, marine department, Nantucket public schools, sheriff’s department, town clerk and others.

Town administrator Libby Gibson said exact numbers cannot be provided for the precise number of town employees who have taken flights over the last three-year contract period because each department purchases commuter books from their own budgets and dispense the tickets within he department.

Island Air, which had the previous two three-year contracts, provided the flights for $28 per one-way ticket in fiscal year 2007. Nantucket Shuttle’s proposed and ultimately rejected bid, was for flights to cost $29.95 for fiscal year 2008, with increases to $31.95 and $33.95 the following fiscal years. Island Air’s prices for the three-year contract began with a $26.50 ticket price for the first fiscal year and $27.25 for the next fiscal year, showing similar increases as the Nantucket Shuttle bid.

The new round of bids are due May 24 by 10 a.m.

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